EUROPE AND AMERICA

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EUROPE AND AMERICA

• Forces for Change, 1890-1914

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Major Forces for Change

• More education for more people
• Industry overtakes agriculture
• Industrial growth prosperity and labor
• Shortened distances and faster communications
• Growth of scientific knowledge
• European empires

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UNITED STATES

• Resources of most of a continent
• Large and growing industry
• Peaceful neighbors (Canada and Mexico)
• Protected by oceans from other powers
• A tradition of neutrality in relation to the
  nations of Europe

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Europe in 1914
Europe was divided by many nations, ethnicities
and ideas.
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The Great Powers

• Britain largest empire and navy
• Germany -- recently unified (1871) and ambitious
  for colonies and navy
• France Only republic, an issue with Germany
  (war in 1870)
• Austria Old empire, much divided by ethnic
  differences, worried about SE Europe
• Russia Fastest growing in industry and
  population, major internal problems

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Alliances

• Germany is allied with Austria and Italy in the
  Triple Alliance to check Russia and France
• France and Russia allied in the Entente to check
  Germany
• Britain is not allied, but is worried about
  Germanys growing navy and trade with rest of
  world

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Victoria
TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIPS Queen Victoria, Britain,
1837-1901, by 1900 was the grandmother of many
European monarchs.
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George and Nick
George V, King of Britain in 1914
(right) Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia, in 1914
(left)
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Wilhelm
Wilhelm (William) II, the Kaiser of Germany, ca.
1910 first cousin to both Nicholas II and
George V
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Aristocracy
The Aristocracy controlled much of the wealth,
more of the power, in Europe
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Mass education
Mass education expanded opportunity for more
people
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Women and education
Women particularly benefited from larger school
expenditures literacy of woman more than
quadrupled from 1860-1900 in Europe, tripled in
U.S.
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Nationalism
Schools were important for teaching Nationalism
France, rather than Loraine, etc.
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Industry
Industrial growth meant greater production but
also major changes in society
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Middle Class
A rising middle class reflected the growth of a
nations economy
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Painting by Seurat
Middle class clerks, businessmen, sales force
more leisure time
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Consumer Goods
What only the wealthy once enjoyed, middle class
now had
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Peasants Van Gogh
Factory values exceeded agricultural wealth in
many countries
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Labor force
Industrial labor force major change in
societies that had been largely rural
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Child labor
Labor forces (such as this 1870s shoe factory)
contained adults and children poor families
resisted the enforcement of child labor laws
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Photography
Photography documented the hard lives of many
workers
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Riis
German immigrant Jacob Riis photos of poverty
in New York
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Social justice
Riis photos ran in newspapers and in his book,
prompting new efforts at social justice
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Poverty
There was still considerable poverty, and beggars
were common sights on the streets of major cities
and towns.
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Socialism
In 1891, Leo XIII, a conservative, issued the
Rerum Novarum a call for just wages and the
recognition of trade unions. Laborers called him
the Workers Pope.
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Marxism
Marxism called for the violent overthrow of
wealth and capitalism and the establishment of a
workers state.
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Socialism
Various forms of gradual socialism were
proposed in place of Marxism creating a better
society through political parties, voting and
government regulation of the state and the economy
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Military Costs
Marxists and socialists generally opposed war,
arguing that military costs prevented the
improvement of the economy.
British battleship, HMS Dreadnought
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Mass Communications
Politics was now influenced by mass
communications newspapers could alter public
opinion and government policies.
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Spanish-American War
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TR
The war in Cuba made a national hero (and
eventually president) of Theodore Roosevelt
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Trains
Modern armies could be speedily deployed by
trains and directed by telegraph
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Colonies modern technology enabled European
nations to control colonies around the world
U.S. had territories rather than colonies
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Titanic
Absolute faith in modern technology was seriously
shaken in 1912.
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Russo-Japanese war
In 1904, tensions between Russia and Japan (over
China) led to war.
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Russian defeat
Russias defeat in the war shocked the entire
world
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Modernity
Old ideas Authority derived from faith or
ancient wisdomBehavior a matter of good and
evilThe universe was a matter of mechanics
laws of motion New ideas Old wisdom is now
questioned, frequently discardedBehavior is a
matter of hidden, biological impulses The
universe is much more complex and chance plays
a a large part in it Does God play dice with
the universe?
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Darwin
Since the 1860s, Darwins theories of evolution
had frightened the traditional basis of western
religion.
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Freud
The research of Freud questioned the traditional
good-evil basis of behavior
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Laws of physical dynamics
Bohrs concept of the atom, Einsteins theory of
relativity, and the idea of quantum mechanics
made understanding the universe difficult
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SUMMARY

• The major nations of Europe are modern but the
  pace of change has created much tension
• Rivalries among powers are intense
• Social differences within nations are often
  intensified by ethnic differences
• Alliances exist that could trigger a widespread
  war

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The Spark